Chapter 94 Progress

"Oof" I was pushed to the ground, my footing gave away as I fell to the ground.

I pushed myself so that I was sitting, wiping the dirt from my face as I looked up at Aoif.

Aoif had stopped near me and reached out a hand to pull me back up. I glared at the hand and pushed it away pulling myself up on my own, glaring at her all the while.

"Again?" Aoif asked, a smirk on her face as if to imply that I could not go again, I grit my teeth at that, the power and skill that Aoif had shown, I could not fathom how she had grown that much in such a short time but I knew that complaining would do nothing so instead of wallowing in self pity I looked up at Aoif and in lieu of answering her I grabbed my saber that fell to the ground and slashed at her neck

CLANG

The sound of Aoif's dagger blocking my saber rang out in my ear, I didn't expect to get a clean hit on her so the fact that it had been blocked did not bother me. In fact it was part of my plan, using the momentum from the force used to block my attack I jumped back, my tail stabbing at the air, creating ice shards that were sent flying towards Aoif.

Aoif crouched down and followed my form, dodging and weaving through the ice shards that I had sent. However that wasn't the ultimate purpose of the shards.

Manipulating them I create a chain from the shards on the ground intending to trip Aoif up.

Chains flew in both the sky and the ground as I tried to trap Aoif in a cage of chains.

CLANG

CLANG

BANG

The chains that I had created haphazardly broke under Aoif's assault but the ones that I had reinforced with aether were able to resist Aoif's power. Though that meant nothing as Aoif's dexterity shone, her body weaving through the gaps of the chains, gaining on me.

A shine, the dagger's metal reflecting on the sun, I tried to keep my eyes open but the miniscule flinch from the sun reflecting off the dagger onto my eyes allowed Aoif to set her dagger on my neck.

I could feel drops of blood fly off my neck as the force of the air from her attack pushed them from my neck.

…

"Take a rest, you are adequate enough now" With that Aoif turned her back to Gabriel and walked toward me.

I grit my teeth, I was nervous. The battle with Gabriel just reinforced how inadequate I was, I could barely even follow the speed of the battle. The only things that I could make out were the remnants of broken chains then Gabriel suddenly having a dagger to her face.

I raised my shield, from what I had seen Aoif had just up and attacked giving no forewarning.

CLANG

It seemed that I was right to raise my shield as soon after I had seen a glint of metal and instinctively angled my shield to block the attack.

I immediately backed up, my shield was damaged and I needed space to reinforce it so that it could take the beating that Aoif was no doubt going to inflict upon it.

Weirdly enough it seemed like Aoif had seen that I needed space as she gave it to me. However, I wasn't going to waste the time that I was given by pondering why Aoif had given me time, immediately I backed up, aether flying off of my body as I struggled to control it.

White aether coalesced in the air as I tried to manipulate it into coating my shield. Eventually it did but by the time that the shield was reinforced it had already been two minutes.

"Tch, slow" I muttered to myself as I focused on Aoif's form.

BANG

The sound barrier was broken as Aoif charged at me, by reflex I brought my shield up to block it.

…

"Tch" I clicked my tongue in frustration, this was the third time that Aoif had gone past my shield and brought her dagger to my neck.

"Rest, you've done enough today."

I looked down, the words hurting my pride. I knew that I was not as good a combatant as Gabriel but I expected to be able to fight back even a little but every time that I could even hope of reacting Aoif changed her speed either speeding up or slowing down. The constant change in speed disoriented me and I could never manage to block an attack.

The only thing I was able to do was identify the attacks but my body would not react fast enough, or the ingrained instincts would hinder me allowing even the slower attacks to weave through my defense.

Looking back up I saw that Aoif had left, however the energy that I had while sparring with Aoif failed me, my legs buckled as the strength left them. I only had enough strength to pull myself over to Gabriel and sit down.

"You did a good job"

My eyes widened at the unexpected praise from Gabriel.

"Aoif may not say it but I noticed, your reaction time, the positioning of your shield, even the strength in your arm they all grew."

"I- what, I- I- I thought that I had not learned anything, it- it seemed like I had not i- improved." The words came out in stutters, tears threatening to pour out of my eyes as I processed the praise coming from Gabriel. It may have been the adrenaline leaving me but I felt emotional at that moment, the emotions that were usually kept under lock coming out through my voice and facial expression.

"No, you did good, the time between Aoif attacking and you angling your shield to block had decreased by a whole millisecond, even the angle that you used was more efficient, if I had attacked straight on at that angle my strength would have been redirected to my own arm stunning me for a second, Aoif is just a monster."

I just stood there stunned, staring at Gabriel, now that she had mentioned those things I could picture it, the angle that I used to use felt inefficient now that I looked back, the angle that I had adopted while being attacked by Aoif was much better.

I smiled leaning my head on Gabriel's shoulder.

"Thank you"